The Messenger from Madisonville, Kentucky • 9

-Sports The Messenger Madisonville, Friday, August 21, 1981 9 and lay IS Iking i me to quit ta i Mr. Morgan Did It! Dan Morgan, who a week ago jammed an end of a metal fence pole through a hamstring muscle and spent until Wednesday in both a Columbia, hospital and the Regional Medical Center, is okay. He won't be playing football soon, but he was to have attended this morning's pep rally at Madisonville-North in his game jersey, and he said he plans to be at tonight's game. He emphatically put it, "I'll be at the game, no doubt about it. The spunky senior fullback is walking with crutches on an injured leg when a lot of people wouldn't try it.

Henderson lost another halfback Thursday in Kevin Bryant. That makes the third halfback Mojo Hollowell's team has lost, and two of them Bryant and Fletcher will be out for an extended length of time. Owensboro's sophomore running back Mark Higgs is back in harness and running second team now. The only Owensboro schools opening this weekend are Apollo at McLean County tonight, Daviess at Campbell County Saturday night. Henderson is at Meade County tonight, while Caldwell County hosts next week's Maroons opponent, Christian County.

tonight. Game time is 7:30, in Walnut Street Stadium (Tiger Stadium to old-time Hoptowners), and both teams are opening the year. Big Eight Tidbits: Henderson County got a shock the other day when two-way starting halfback Fletcher went down with a knee injury. He's supposed to be back no sooner than the seventh or eighth game, if then. Should he get back, he'd probably be ready for the Maroons in the last game of the season, but that may be too late to help the Colonels with some early-season toughies.

supposed to make it hard to run inside on Hoptown. Lee runs as fast as most backs, a 4.6 in the 40-yard dash. That's as fast as Mimms has been timed. Madisonville-North should have the psychological edge in this game. They should have something to prove after last year's miserable 25-7 loss to this team, which finished with the same 3-7 mark.

The Maroons must also put on a good show almost have to win in order to make the early talk stick. If the Maroons are to be big winners in 1981, payback all the teams that put them in misery in 1980, then they'll, have to start ft, Jt JisJ-: v. jT By JIM GRIESCH Sports Editor Tonight, it's time to quit talking. is time to take the wraps off the 1981 Madiscnville-North Hopkins Football Maroons, and see if all that pre-season optimism is for real, or not. The Maroons have to open their season on the road, stalking a dangerous Hopkinsville brand of Tiger in their own habitat.

That's not been a pleasant thing of late, since the last three times the Maroons have taken on any brand of Tiger, they have come up short. The last two years, Hoptown has won. Then, last year, the Caldwell County Tigers got in a couple of licks of their own. Will that change? Possibly. Probably? Who knows.

What is known about this particular Maroon team is that it is much closer. The players all seem to be shooting for the same goals, and there are enough battle-tested veterans around to give positive pre-season rankings some validity. Should the Maroons pick up their offensive zest and defensive ability from the end of the 1980 season, Hopkinsville should find a much improved team. When last the two met, Hopkinsville made the 23-7 margin look easy. The Maroons' defense had to score, from 85 yards away.

The offense mustered barely a loud whisper. That should Terry Mimms is the man to make the "Big offense move. He moved for 1,274 yards last season, second in the Big Eight, and gained some all-conference, all-state sort of honors. Ahead of him will be three promising fullbacks in Travis Allensworth, Tracy Hightower, and Fred Drake. Mike Arnold is back at the controls, having inherited the starting job as senior competitor Danny Figert moved away.

The line shapes up as one that has been working well together this summer. That finds Mike Gibson and Tim Jones at ends, Darrin Rickard and Mike Morrison at tackles, Antonio Davis and Bob Herrmann at guards, and Eddie Milium at center. The split back will be Phillip Nicholson. The defense is sounder, too, with Davis and Gibson at ends, Stretch McNary and Morrison at tackles, David Williams at nose guard, Tony Dulin, Philip Kittinger and Allensworth at linebacker. Nicholson, Kelvin Gray and Dwight Carney in the backfield.

Hopkinsville comes in with several new faces in the lineup and in the coaching staff. Mike Lewis is the new head coach, coming home to his old high school after attending both Western Kentucky and Memphis State. He was an assistant to Dan Sundberg last year, but Sundberg has moved across town to an assistant's post at Christian County High, and the Maroons will see him next week. Lewis has installed a new look for the Tigers. They'll still wear their black and orange uniforms with the big Tigers paws on the helmets, but they'll show a new formation the wishbone on offense, and the 6-2 look on defense.

The names to remember tonight are probably going to be Mike Day andPatKendrick. Day was a fullback last year, and he opened his junior season with a 100-yard night against Madison-ville-North. He's moved to halfback in the bone, making room for the 185-pound Kendrick, who is supposed to supply the power run in the triple option antics of the wishbone. Darrin Cornett is a tough, strong tight end, moving over from his starting right guard spot. Cornett is supposed to be a leading Tiger.

Defensively, Cornett at linebacker and guard Russell Lee are top hands to watch. Cornett played an end spot in Sundberg's 5-2 last year, and his latteral movement will be a plus in the new look. Lee played nose guard in 1980, and his quickness is VMomMfc i 7 ir? sS'S 1 1 1 SIM" Af, Ready to go again i 3 Above is leading returning all-Big Eight back Terry Mimms, who had 1,274 yards last year. At upper right are the varsity assistant coaches for 1981. From left, they are Jim Hunter, Tony Elliott, Tom Searcy, and Jim Biles.

Bob Louden, Joe Kluepfel and volunteer Brad Scarlett are working with the frosh and junior varsity. At right is the final play of 1980, when Antonio Davis just missed a game-tying field goal against Henderson County. (Photos by Ed Noble) The radio people Both radio stations in MadisonvUle WKTG-FM and WTTL-AM -will again bring all the action your way. WKTG begins 45 minutes before gametime with Countdown to Kickof then has a 15-minute Press Box Preview before each game. The station is still considering carrying Murray football.

WTTL won't have its full pre-game and post-game blocks of shows until September when they will have Leonard's Losers, Jess Owens on Sports, and NFL Countdown. For two weeks, they'll have Cawood's Week in Review at 6:55, the Other Side of the Line at 7:05 and the Pre-Game Show at 7:15 tonight. They'll carry the usual post-game stuff, plus Saturday's 9 a.m. Huddle with Steve Tweddell, then the 9:35 Weekend Scoreboard. WTTL will carry UK football and basketball again this year.

CFA: Owners call playoff plan 'unjust and irrational' A The NCAA panicked ATLANTA AP) The president of the College Football Association says the National Collegiate Athletic Association "pushed the panic button" when the CFA moved into money matters rather than academic and recruiting issues. The controversy comes to a head today when the CFA decides whether to ratify a four-year, $180 million television contract with NBC, an agreement that would guarantee each CFA member at least two appearances and $1 million. The NCAA, which has a $263, million package for the same Rerlod (1982-85) with ABC and CBS, as threatened to take disciplinary action against CFA members if they adopt the TV package with NBC. "Naturally that kind of reaction is a little repugnant to me," Dr. Fred C.

Davison, president of the CFA and the University of Georgia, said Thursday night. Davison said threats of probation and possibly even expulsion from the NCAA never arose when the CFA pushed for raising academic requirements. But he said the NCAA "pushed the panic button" when the TV Issue arose. The CFA consists of 61 universities, represented by 17 major Independents and five conferences the Atlantic Coast, Big Eight, Southeastern, Southwest and Western Athletic. It Includes most of the major powers with the ex ccpttoa ol the Pac-10 and Hig Ten conferences.

Today's vote will not be binding since the members have a period of reconsideration. That date was set for Sept, io. NEW YORK (AP) Players union chief Marvin Miller perhaps summarized baseball's problems best when he said that "Einstein himself couldn't devise a system that didn't have bugs in it." So it was predictable that the response to a new split-season format for major league baseball would be harsh in some quarters. One executive called the new plan "unjust and Irrational." Under the revised format, if the same team wins both halves of a division race, its opponent in the divisional playoffs will be the team with the second-best record In the second half. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn was heavily criticized for the original format, which called for the team with the second-best record for both halves In a division to get a playoff berth In case there's a double division winner.

Under this plan, it was possible that a team would need to lose games late in the season to assure itself of a playoff berth. Thursday's announcement by Kuhn, American League President Lee MacPhaU and National League President Chub Feeney, said, "This revision eliminates the outside possibility that a club losing a game or games toward the end of the season would thereby qualify as a wild card team for the new Division Series." Both the original split-season format conceived at the end of the 50-day players' strike and the new plan call for division winners In each half of the season to meet In a best-of five divisional playoff. The New York Yankees, Oakland A's, Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers, all first-place teams on June 12 when the strike began, were declared first-half winners. The division playoff victors will advance to the league championship series. The survivors go on to the World Series.

The change in plans hurts teams that did well in the first half, but weren't in first place when the strike started. For example, the Cincinnati Reds were only one-half game behind the Dodgers In the NL West on June 12. One of those who was upsH with the revised plan was Cincinnati President Dick Wagner. "As the architect of the spill season and the leader in promoting this recent decision, the commissioner must take full responsibility," said Wagner. "It was a situation that required surgery and was treated with bandaids The change is simply an easy way out and whitewash by baseball's leadership." The Texas Ranger, who wt-re second to Oakland in the AL West in the first portion of the season despite losing one less game than the A's, also weren't happy with the new plan.

"I don't like it," said pitcher Jon Matlack. the team's player rep. "It makes the first half meaningless except for the first place teams. Oh, well, it makes it more Interesting to make up the rule as you go along." "They should have the playoffs between teams with the two twsl records overall," added Texas pitcher Doc Medtch, that play well all year shouldn't penalized." The St, l)uls Ciirdin.iiji. only gamrn behind on June 12, were unhappy lw "It's the most unjust.

Irrational concept ever perpetrated in baseball," said Joe McDonald, executive assistant to General Manager-Manager Whitey Herzog. "To go Into a season with one thought to win your division then change In midseason is unthinkable." "They turned it into a big farce, a big joke," said the Cards' Dane lorg. The new format calls for the second -half runner-up to host a double-winner in the first game of the divisional playoffs. The next four games would Ik- played at the field of the two time division champion. "The adjustment of the Division Series was made solely to eradicate any possible question of integrity, which must be preserved at all times," said major league baseball's statement.

"There was no intention of changing the basic split-season format Kuhn admitted that "various other possibilities such as a bye (for any two-time division winners! were considered, but nothing else aside from the bye was considered seriously. "We felt a bye would take a team out of action for eight days and it could take several more teams out of action. It was possible that all four divisions could have been out of action for eight days." Correction In a Monday story about the ASA women's Class softhall regional at Mortons Gap, tourney most valuable player Beverly Oakley wa identified as Hrencfa Oakley wrong Information supplied The Messenger. Wow National League umpire Terry Tata was holding his Jaw after being hit in the face by a foul ball earlier this week. Even as he got some medical attention from San Diego trainer Dick Dent, Tata's expression still seemed one of dazed amazement.

(AP Laserphoto).